Woman made 911 call concerned about husband days before her murder

by Mike Krafcik

WWMT

HASTINGS, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3)- Newschannel 3 has obtained the 911 calls to police a Barry County woman made just days before police say she was murdered by her husband. On June 7th, Cheyenne Bowling, 26, told dispatchers she discovered a camera recording her at the home she shared with husband Ralph Bowling.

On June 11th, Bowling was found shot dead in her mother’s driveway in Baltimore Township, hours later police say Ralph Bowling set fire to the couple's home on Coates Grove Road in Woodland Township.

Police and family members say it’s unclear if action by police could have prevented Cheyenne Bowling's death. Bowling placed the 911 call from the couple’s Coats Grove Home on June 7th, on the same day she moved out. Cheyenne Bowling told the dispatcher she asked Ralph for a divorce a month ago.

“I’m staying at mom's house tonight, I grabbed the card out of it that has all the pictures on it,” Bowling said in the 911 call.

Bowling sounded relatively calm throughout the 3-minute 911 call, which she claimed finding a hidden camera in her home. Cheyenne told the dispatcher it was installed by her husband Ralph.

“I was getting dressed today and happened to notice a trail cam that he had set-up that's recording me,” Bowling told dispatchers in the 911 call.

State Police never responded to Cheyenne’s call for help that night.

“The message didn't get transferred to the trooper it should have, nothing intentional, but we did not call her back,” said Michigan State Police Lt. Angel Ouwinga.

Lt. Owinga, the assistant commander of the Michigan State Police Wayland Post acknowledges Cheyenne’s call was transferred from a dispatcher to MSP, who was supposed to call bowling..

On Monday, Ralph Bowling was charged with open murder, attempted murder, 1st degree home invasion and 2nd degree arson.. The prosecutor said bowling had surveilled the home--- before breaking in and shooting his wife and her friend.

“He had camera in the house taking inappropriate pictures of Cheyenne, stalking, following her around,” said Cheyenne’s father Dan Fighter.

M.S.P. says it’s working to ensure a similar situation doesn't happen again. Dan Fighter agrees a trooper should have answered his daughter’s call, but doesn’t blame the agency for what happened